This is a personal message.

Tears in my eyes, heart pounding. This is coming from the most authentic bottom of my heart.

It is targeted at you, non-Israelis who know me personally. Acquaintances, colleagues, partners, suppliers, friends and the small group who I consider to be among my closest friends. If we've ever talked before, if we shook hands, if we shared a joint, if we hugged, if we spent time together, I ask for your time and attention to read this message, I am writing it to you.

I see Israelis posting about our disaster, they begin the post with an intro saying "I never post about politics, or non-work-related issues", to me it looks apologetic and I say F#ck that BS, this is not about politics, it is a historically horrifying event that happened just a minute ago. ?

I have been violated!

My people have been violated!

My country has been violated in the worst unimaginable way!!!

I don’t expect you to be affected in the same way I am, I know the week kept going and there were product launches, conferences, professional achievements, I can see your posts about these things.

I know you know what happened to us and heard how horrifying this still is, but I think most humans have an internal defense mechanism emotionally detaching them from this, it's natural because if you really make a sincere attempt to comprehend what those psychopaths did to us, it is unbearable.

I am disappointed. Where are you?!?!?! Have you not heard about the babies, the beheadings, the fires, the rape, the massacre, have you not heard that since October 7th morning our babies and children are in Gaza held by psychopaths?!?!?!? Where are you!!!!

I have seen very few, if any, public posts from my non-Israeli friends regarding what happened.

You might think you don't want to mix politics on LinkedIn, but this is not about politics, it is clearly about people and humanity. We do business with people and we should choose to do it with people who have a clear robust moral compass, clear enough to sound their voice when things like this happen.

It might be confusing to some of you with the whole Palestinian mess, but it is actually very clear and simple. This is not about Palestine, this is about Hamas.

It’s not even about Jews. Innocent civilians with citizenships from 30 countries were brutally murdered and kidnapped in the Hamas inhumane attack on Israel. Among them over 20 people from Thailand, these victims didn’t even speak Hebrew. Not 1 or 2 that were harmed by mistake by one stupid terrorist, dozens were butchered and kidnapped by many of these psychopaths.

The acts they did are hard to even listen to, let alone watch. Can’t even talk about experiencing that. Yet it's inevitable to imagine it happening to yourself or your loved ones, but these kinds of thoughts can only be held for a few seconds because it is so unbearable.

Don’t get confused or distracted, it’s not about work, it’s not about Palestine, it's about what happened, who you are and who you want to be.

A victim that feels violated knows he can’t go back in time and undo what happened, but every outside acknowledgment he gets goes a long way, recognizing the wrongdoing the victim went through gives him sense of value, starts rebuilding his trust in humanity and eases the extreme loneliness he feels.

I had a sensitive discussion with a very close German friend a couple of years ago, I asked him how they are brought up to look at the Holocaust and the future, he said the main message they are taught when being brought up is "Don't look away", in the face of injustice and barbarism look directly at the hard reality.

?

If you worry that someone will be upset with you for voicing your opinion or feeling regarding an unbearable massacre, F%ck'em, you're better off without them anyway.

?

?

The Jewish people's history is full of tragedy, we have been victimized many times before, this time it is different. We are not a weak victim, we are a strong a capable one, and now the victim will go and make sure this can’t happen again.

In the process there will be a lot of pain for both sides, it's going to be very bad, but the deed was done and there is no going back. We have to and we will fix the problem called Hamas.

It is imperative for our future existence.

?

I am not asking you to take part in shaping public opinion, it's the best thing you could do, but I cannot force you.

This is not about helping me fight the propaganda/public opinion war.

This is about us, you and me and how we will look at each other next time we meet.

It's still not too late, don’t surrender to your defense mechanism, get attached, voice your opinion, separate yourself from those who think this is not important, and from those who think this is acceptable, from those who think this is justified.

?

Here are 2 good examples:

After watching dozens of gut wrenching, heart breaking videos, pictures article and stories, this was the first one that made me burst in to tears:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/agexecutiveandchangeleader_israeli-arabic-reporter-lucy-aharish-message-activity-7118261423624863744-Mvhx?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

?

You should see what happens to an Israeli when he hears the Speech of Eric Adams the Mayor of New York for the first time:

https://youtu.be/edhksThn3Jc?si=gbMc8rTlxAh3GGL4

?

We are not alright!